Arctic Arts

21/01/2024

In Greenland's icy expanse, the finest mask artisans hailed from Ammassalik. Driftwood, abundant in those parts, fueled the boundless imagination of local carvers.

There were animal masks, facial masks and masks of those who could not be easily seen.
Only the Angakut, the Arctic shamans, could commune with spirits, beings whose origins remained shrouded in mystery, perhaps from the celestial realms.

Hence, the artists, the carvers, employed every ounce of creativity to fathom what the Angakut beheld with their mystic gaze. These spirits, capricious in nature, could bear malevolence or become saviors of life.

Each mask became a bridge between the natural and the supernatural, a portal from consciousness into the enigmatic realms of the unconscious. This conduit proved indispensable for hunting, navigation, survival, and even affairs of the heart.

However, the advent of Western explorers, traders, whalers, and ultimately, missionaries, ushered in a dark age for mask making. These newcomers vilified the masks as demonic, and with their arrival, the sacred art of mask crafting faded into oblivion. The serene harmony of spiritual life in Greenland lay shattered, but the old masks can still tell the story of the great past.

21/06/2022

Inuiattut Ullorsiornissinni Pilluaritsi!
Congratulations with Greenlandic National Day! 🇬🇱

22/11/2021

Qeqertarsuaq is a place where talented people are regularly and disproportionately born.

Anyone who has once set a foot on Disko Island, knows Jens Jørgen Broberg. Blizzard or rain, he is always there, at “Times Square” of Qeqertarsuaq, near Pilersuisoq grocery store, with his exquisite little polar bears, seals and whales, carved with precision and love.

Jens Jørgen Broberg was born in 1941.
He does not remember the war and the occupation, but he very clearly remembers the day when it all ended: “We were celebrating at our school and everybody was thrilled, even though we did not know what war really was!”

Jens Jørgen had lived many lives. A trained electrician and a sailor, he ended up on Nakorsaq’s (doctor’s) boat, which zigzagged the Disko Bay: from Kangerluk to Qasigiannguit.
Then he became a dog-sledder. He had seven dogs which today equals the double: in those days dogs were so much stronger. They were smarter too. “They were brought up right from the very beginning – says Jens Jørgen, - and they were not chained as they are today. They were roaming free.”

He also was a fisherman, a very successful one, and later, when his kids were born, he became a pedel (a handyman) at the local school: a tough decision for an adventurer, but he made it anyway – just to be near his children at all times.

And then one Easter he made a trip to Qaanaaq, to visit his daughter who was a teacher in Avanersuaq. This journey worked as a flint on which his imagination was suddenly fired. Kinuvila Sadorana, the local artist, gave him a gift: a polar bear pendant, one of a kind. This little polar bear brought Jens Jørgen into Qaanaaq’s workshop where he carved non-stop for two months.

It was in Qaanaaq, where his new life, of an artist, has begun.
In 2014 Jens Jørgen lost his wife. They were married for 50 years and had 7 children, two of whom he has outlived. To deal with the memories, he starts his morning early - at the workshop, where he spends hours, turning his grief into art.

In less than two weeks Jens Jørgen will turn 80. His secret of good life? “Have a good sense of humor, go to bed early and get up at 5 am”.

Let’s put this date - Dec 6th - on our calendars and celebrate it together with Jens Jørgen - a Grand Man of Qeqertarsuaq!


Aaninnguaq Broberg Nukannguaq Broberg Ole Jorgen Hammeken

22/02/2020

Arctic artist and her children.
Sara Petersen started to paint when she was a little girl living in Southern Greenland. When she grew up she worked many jobs, but she never quit painting.
Through her polar bears, icebergs, arctic moons and their reflections, she tries to understand herself, both in the Light and in the Dark.
Her paintings are magical, because each one is a living space. Like a window into the bigger world, the best window in you apartment.

17/01/2020

"I was a fisherman. I was catching snow crab. But then snow crab was gone. Climate change? I don't know. I had to find a new life to support my family.
I suddenly realized that I was coming from a very special family of carvers and artists. And then I thought: "Why not me?"
Otto Joelsen, a carver from Nuuk, makes the most fascinating carvings of the memories of his life.
And now, some of his work will be travelling to Siberia for he Art Show

17/01/2020

"I made this sarpik ("whale tale" in Kalaallisut, Greenlandic language) on the first day of 2020. It was very dark, and working on it made me happy", says Vittus Mikaelsen, the carver from Nuuk, Greenland.
Vittus was born in Tasiilaq, in East Greenland, where whales are many. He worked many jobs, but now he feels that memories of his early childhood fuel his biggest passion - creating "things that look strange".

14/12/2019

"I missed the freedom of the tundra and continued storytelling and making art in a clandestine way", says Khadry Okotetto, a young indigenous Nenets artist from Yamal Peninsula.
Our story Terralingua and Langscape Magazine is out for you to read and share. Here is the link!
https://terralingua.org/langscape_articles/there-are-no-corners-in-the-tundra

03/12/2019

"My father died from alcohol when I was 11. And then my brother committed su***de. He was just 18. It was horrible, but then, it was also "normal". Boys often take their lives on the edge of the planet, all around the Arctic.
Growing up in the little Arctic settlement, I wanted to become an artist to bring some light into people's lives".

Katrina Trofimova (Even, Russian Federation), interviewed by Galya Morrell

28/11/2019

"As an Arctic artist, I know that my mission is to break stereotypes that we are born into," says D'ulus Mukhin, a 19 year old indigenous artist and actor from Yakutia.

D’ulus Mukhin (Even, Russian Federation), interviewed by Galya Morrell

12/11/2019

Each overcoat has a story.

Some stories have been forgotten and then reinvented.

Buuktaah Son is a traditional Yakutian winter overcoat designed for survival in one of the most inhospitable environments on Earth, where temperatures customarily plummet to -60C.

For centuries, seamstresses from Taatta district have been creating these masterpieces: by hand, in the light of a burning candle.

With the arrival of "civilization", when pretty much everything became disposable, the tradition was gone, finding a temporary refuge in the dark of the old grandma's trunks.

Someone had to find it there and bring back to life.
It always take a community to restore the tradition. We were lucky to meet the people who spent years on bringing Buuktaah Sons back to life.

Many years ago, we met Изабелла Элякова, a cultural activist from Taatta, who was one of the pioneers of reinventing the Buuktaah Son. With little resources of Yakutian pensioner, she travelled to the smallest settlements of Taatta digging through the attics and recording stories of the elders.

In 2012 she even travelled all the way to NYC to work in the AMNH archives of The Jesup North Pacific Expedition where the best Buuktah Sons were kept.

"Some people were telling me: why are you trying to recreate a worn out stuff? Who needs it in the modern world?" And I would tell them: "Unless we know where we have come from, we would not know where to go next", says Izabella.

Along with her 85 year old mother, Anna Akimova and her niece, Izolda Akimova, Izabella has recreated her first collection with is now kept in the private Taatta Fashion Museum.

But that was not enough for Izabella. She convinced families around her to invest time, passion and money in creating new collections of Buuktah Sons that would not be some museum artifacts but living things. This morning these women came out to enjoy the snow in Taatta and our friend Galya Davydova took the picture.

03/11/2019

One of the best things about Tiffany Ayalik, whom we love dearly as an artist and as a dear friend, is that she is like Sila: she keeps changing all the time.

We have been listening to “Nuna to Qilak: Land to Sky” non-stop during the last few days. Tiffany and her sister Kayley Inuksuk Mackay have been throat-singing since they were children. There was a time, actually all across the Arctic - Siberia and Chukotka including, when the practice almost went extinct. That was the time when Tiffany took it very serious.

We know Tiffany as the most sharing person - she literally gives herself away to those in need. She also strongly believes in collaboration in the arts. Now a new chapter in her life has begun and we wish her luck on her way, because she has all the rest! :-)

Provided to YouTube by Believe SAS Nuna to Qilak: Land to Sky · Piqsiq Altering the Timeline ℗ Coax records Released on: 2019-01-11 Author: Kayley Inuksuk Ma...

03/11/2019

We are thrilled to learn that the “Book of the Sea” won the 20th imagineNATIVE Film+Media Art Festival in Toronto as the Best Indigenous Language Production. Kudos to Alexey Vakhrushev, one of the most talented indigenous film-directors living today!
Please, take a time to read the interview with Alexey published in the Inuit Art Quarterly Inuit Sanaugait. :-)

Filmmaker Aleksei Vakhrushev is a Yupik native of Anydyr Chukotka who has been in the film industry for over 20 years and focuses mainly on northern Russian content. His new film The Book of the Sea is a hybrid documentary that follows a group of contemporary Chukotkan whale hunters who practice the...